Updated: 19/11/19
This is the first post in a series of interviews with some of our clients and friends. We’re aiming to highlight the triumphs and struggles of running your own business. Where better to start than the spiritual home of London cycle couriers: Fullcity cycles.
Fullcity cycles is a small bike shop located on Leather Lane in Farringdon. Every inch of it is stuffed with bikes and bike parts, but it’s more than just a shop. It’s a mecca for cycle couriers who gather during summer nights and often begin races from just outside their doors.
We went to meet Janine and George to get the lowdown on how they came to be. We sincerely hope every interview in this series is as interesting as this one.
How did you get into the industry?
George
“I’ve always been into bikes and bike riding. Fullcity was an opportunity to get a bike shop going without reinventing the wheel. It’s a continuation of what I do. The courier association was part of the shop and we wanted to maintain that. We wanted to keep that going and improve on it.”
How did you come across Fullcity?
George
“A friend of mine (Emma)’s father was a cyclist and I used to fix his bikes. She knew about the shop and worked here and that arranged the possibility of carrying the baton. We got a group of people together; some friends and associates and we went ahead and took over the shop about 2.5–3 years ago.”
So what’s your ethos here?
George
“Well I’m the crazy bike person. So, I was always the person who was gonna make the bike thing work. My interest lies in everything pedal-powered. My reason for being here is to connect people with their bikes; make more people ride bikes. That’s the core basis for what I do and why I’m involved.”
What attracted you to Fullcity?
George
“Part of it is, that there’s nowhere to open a truly independent bike shop. In my opinion, it’s saturated. A lot of high-end bike shops are opening but it’s whether they stay open that’s the issue. We felt that we wanted a place that had potential and had something going; something that had character and persona. Fullcity definitely has.
“It’s about the location and the people associated with it. It’s one of the very few places that I would’ve ever considered getting involved with. Opening a bike shop in London is a non-starter in many ways. This was already here and turned out to be a really interesting place as well.”
What were the first things that you struggled with when you took over here?
George
“Besides the lack of space, it was trying to integrate the needs of couriers with the commercial needs of a regular shop, in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. They’re at opposite ends, at odds with each other. The couriers want something cheap, fast, simple and easy; maybe something second-hand. So we’re trying to create the recycling ethos, the green environmentalist ethos of reusing parts that are safe to reuse.
“We want to work with the couriers and keep ’em rolling. We want to live life on the edge, and at the same time run the shop like a regular bike shop on London’s high-street. The main problem is integrating and streaming the second-hand and the recycling part of our product range into the mainstream bike shop.”
What are the other struggles you’ve come across?
George
“We had virtually no working capital. We were crazy and we still are. So it was seat-of-the-pants stuff, and it still is. Is that a British expression? Flying by the seat of your pants? Lifting one’s self by one’s bootstraps? But yeah, we basically had no working capital. It was and is intensely difficult, ridiculously, crazily, preposterously difficult.
“We tried to remodel while still open for business which is crazy. But we had to stay open for business immediately. So trying to remodel while fixing bikes is crazy; the word is crazy. I mean, our catchphrase is: We are crazy. Crazy cyclists; that’s what we’re about.”
Give me a little insight into your history.
Janine
“I’m an indoor cycling instructor/a spinning instructor and I train instructors. I’ve been in the fitness industry for about 25 years, and I’m only 35! I’ve always been into biking and road bikes. I’ve always ridden but somehow riding bikes, being on the road, became my life.
“I got to know the shop before George bought it. I was initially a customer of the shop, and somewhere along the line, I ended up being a friend of George’s. I’ve known George pretty much since he took on the shop, although I’ve only been properly involved with the shop over the last 18 months.”
George
“She’s a guardian angel.”
How did the relationship with the couriers form?
Janine
“Early on in the shop’s history they just pitched up, one by one, like cats. One of them pitched up and stayed, and then a couple rolled in and hung out together. Then, it was like they all found their way here, We didn’t invite them, we didn’t stop them, we didn’t encourage it. We didn’t discourage it.”
George
“It was unwittingly encouraged. It was about being friendly, wanting to help them out. Which is always difficult to do, it’s not an easy thing.”
Janine
“We had a little core that used to come and hang out, just to get out of the cold.”
George
“The place was unintentionally a bike kitchen. It evolved into the perfect bike kitchen; a place where people might find a deal and borrow a tool or pump without feeling uncomfortable, unlike in some fancy chi-chi bike gallery.”
Janine
“We wanted to be the opposite of chi chi, and I think we’ve succeeded pretty well.”
George
[laughing] “That wasn’t necessarily intentional…”
Janine
“I think we should stick with it, we should say that we wanted to be the exact opposite.”
George
“That’s who we are, we all have a little bit of hillbilly in us. My hillbilly gene is quite strong, so trailer parks and hillbillies – that’s where I come from. That fits in with the couriers, moving from one squat to another, their bikes always breaking down. The bike is like a tool and they’ve gotta keep their running costs low. They never have any money, and so we’re a good fit for them.
“ There are only a few chi-chi couriers – like Atis…” [Atis is a courier who’s been standing around in the shop with us. He’s well known on the scene for riding a hot pink bike and wearing tight lycra shorts come hail, rain or shine.]
Atis
“I don’t even know what chi-chi is… you’re like an older incarnation of the 80’s.”
George
“80’s ok… I thought you were gonna say the 60’s. I’m glad you didn’t.”
Do you have any plans to work even more closely with the couriers in the future?
Janine
“I’d like to think that we’ll have the time and the facilities to do a blog and have a joint project with some merchandise. That way, they can use their logo and our logo and we can continue to work together. They’re a very creative and unusual bunch of guys.”
George
“Not all the guys are like that, this is a tough game. Most of them will flip from one side to the other. Some can be pretty damaged goods.”
Janine
“Guys like Atis and Mark and Neil [couriers], are good characters, and being a courier suits them. But it’s what they do, rather than who they are, if that makes sense?”
George
“You need to have a high tolerance level to merge their demands into a place that needs an element of regularity to it. Otherwise, you would be lurching from one incident to another. That’s the flip side of it that people don’t realise.”
Janine
“I’d love to think that we could continue to develop an ongoing relationship with someone like Clarence and James [couriers, the same James that we chatted to about building a fixed gear bike]. They’re very creative.”
George
“There’s so much creativity. That’s why we like it, they bring the fun into the bike shop. They add the fun element.”
Janine
“You’ve been here on a Friday night? If the guys have had a stressful day they come to wind down and hang out here. It feels like a comfortable place for them. They know if they’re in trouble George will help them out.”
George
“I try to, yeah. We try our best. Bikes are difficult, nasty items to fix. We’re trying to be a bijoux bike shop that caters to everyone. Offering a good service whilst still being a courier friendly place.”
So you guys, hang around on Friday’s and create a place for the couriers to meet how did that come about?
George
“It’s just the way we work. The couriers come down to meet up, hang out, wait for jobs and it’s a lot to do with the street itself. It’s a safe, pedestrianised street. There’s no roaring traffic and it’s pretty amenable. People are allowed to come in a car but they don’t.
“It’s like a street that would have been in the 20s or 30s; people are walking because it’s a market street. There’s really no other bike shop like this, with this kind of location. It’s pretty unique. Brick lane’s kind of cool but it’s on a busy street. Cars create dead zones. The fact that there’s always a crowd of people drinking at the pub next door is all fundamental to a place like this. That’s why it’s all worked out.”
The Oakley pop-up shop down the road, have tried to pick up on that.
George
“We aim to provide a little community. I mean we haven’t even finished with our remodel. We’ll have a little workstation for courier’s tools and everything will be a little more accessible. We had to make money straight away. We had to start fixing bikes, we didn’t have the luxury of being able to close down for a couple of months and remodel. We depend on our daily takings.
“Some of the stuff that we had planned, like better facilities for the couriers, more space and a better selection of second-hand parts, is still phase 3. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, we’ll be up to speed with better tooling, a workstation and organised second-hand bins.
“We’ll have to lay those out in a way that they don’t interfere with the shop. When we took it on, there were plastic trays all over the ground and you had to have hover boots to get around. So there’s still a little bit to do.
“Our plans for the future are to finish our refit to create the environment that’s a little more comfortable, and better organised. We want to finish our rearrangement so we can accommodate more people to hang out. Then, there are bigger plans but you know, I’m not much of a chess player.
“We aim to improve the environment for both couriers and the biking community. I would like to teach courses, like wheel building, that kind of thing; 2 or 3 students at a time. Evening courses and learning evenings, and a better bike kitchen experience – like a bike kitchenette. That’s in the immediate future.
“We want to improve our coffee situation; we want to be like a counterpoint. Everyone is selling four or five-pound coffee. We’ll offer cowboy coffee for one buck and then we plan to donate ten pence from every pound into the London Courier Emergency Fund. That’s our plan.”
[At this point a guy walks in from the council]
Council guy
“I manage all the shops along here and on Clerkenwell Road. Because you have a private landlord, I thought I would pop in because I’ve had a complaint, although it’s not my domain.
“The complaint relates to late drinking of alcohol outside of normal shop operating hours. I don’t know whether it relates to you or the pub, but they said that the noise and some abuse came from people drinking outside here. Is that going on at all?”
George
“Well, about 9 the couriers are gone and there’s still a crowd in front of the pub. It goes in ebbs and flows. For all I know, there could be one odd incident. I’m in close contact with the managers with the projects next door and with both PCSOs and local police officers. They’ve been very happy.
“From what I’ve seen from the pub, people have been heading home earlier. People associate with us just because they choose to travel on two wheels and use their legs to power them rather than gasoline.”
Council guy
“Just answer my question. Is it friends of yours that are coming here drinking? Or is it nothing to do with you? Factually what is the position?”
George
“Well, the shop has always had an entourage of people that ride bikes. At the end of the day, some of them come here and hang out in front. Sometimes they drink coffee on the go and a lot of them drink red bull.”
Council guy
“Ok, well i’m just trying to head off any potential difficulties for you.”
George
“Well, we have the signs up and there’s a couple of couriers that are quite responsible. They’re well connected and I can have them chat but I have no responsibility for those people; they’re all grown-ups. My job is to connect this chain [pointing at a chain on a bike]. [The customer’s] been waiting a couple of days, I’m not recruiting drunks to go hurl abuse all day.”
Council guy
“Ok well I just wanted to get the facts.”
George
“I mean, do you ride a mountain bike? Well, we are drawing up a code of conduct a bit like the IMBA. But the fact that I am taking that on as a responsible citizen shouldn’t implicate me with criminal behaviour. I’m terribly sorry that it’s happening. What exactly happened?”
Council guy
“There were a few complaints about noise and ‘some abuse’ was the quote, coming from a ‘litany of people’ outside these premises drinking.”
George
“That’s pretty vague.
“The times I fear for mine and my family’s life, are when I get like 6-7 rugby guys on a Saturday. I think I’m not gonna be waking up the next day and it’s gonna be me or them. It’s like take ‘em down or get taken down trying.
“Living in this city and worrying about waking up the next day. Those fears aren’t caused by those guys out there [referring to the couriers]. Those people will protect you. But the day that you turn your back on those 5 assholes in pink shirts is the day that you get the shit kicked out of you.
“This is bullshit. If I’m gonna get fucked up and die it’s not gonna be because of those guys [still referring to couriers].
[To me] “There you go, man, this place is hardcore. You flip from just fixing a bike and everything’s hunky-dory and then you’re risking getting the place shut down!”
George and Janine bring the heart and soul to the Leather Lane courier scene. Should you need help with your bike then you must go down and pay them a visit www.fullcitycycles.co.uk
